At the beginning of words, is a consonant; at the end, and when it follows a consonant, is a vowel, and has the sound of i. It is used at the end of words, and whenever two i i’s would come together; and in words derived from the Greek, to express the u. Y was much used by the Saxons, whence y is found for i in the old English writers.
Y is in old English sometimes prefixed as an increasing syllable to preterites, and passive participles of verbs. It seems borrowed from ge, the Saxon augmentum of the preterite. It is sometimes put before present tenses, but, I think, erroneously.242
YACHT. n.s. A small ship for carrying passengers.
YELK. n.s. [from gealewe, yellow, Saxon.] The yellow part of the egg. It is commonly pronounced, and often written yolk.
The yolk of the egg conduceth little to the generation of the bird, but only to the nourishment of the same: for if a chicken be opened, when it is new hatched, you shall find much of the yolk remaining. BACON’S NATURAL HISTORY.
That a chicken is formed out of the yelk of an egg, with some antient philosophers the people still opinion. BROWN.
All the feather’d kind,
From th’ includ ed yolk, not ambient white arose. DRYDEN.
YE’LLOWBOY. n.s. A gold coin. A very low word.
John did not starve the cause; there wanted not yellowboys to see council. ARBUTHNOT’S JOHN BULL.
YES. adv. [gise, Saxon.] A term of affrmation; the affrmative particle opposed to no.
This were a fit speech for a general in the head of an army, when going to battle: yes, and it is no less fit speech in the head of a council, upon a deliberation of entrance into a war. BACON.
Yes, you despise the man to books confin’d, Who from his study rails at human kind, Though what he learns he speaks. POPE.243
YEW. n.s. [iw, Saxon; yw, Welsh. This is often written eugh; but the former orthography is at once nearer to the sound and the derivation. See EUGH.] A tree of tough wood.244
It hath amentaceous flowers, which consist of many apices, for the most part shaped like a mushroom, and are barren; but the embryoes, which are produced at remote distances on the same tree, do afterward become hollow bell-shaped berries, which are full of juice, and include seeds somewhat like acorns, having, as it were, a little cup to each. Miller.
The shooter eugh, the broad-leav’d sycamore,
The barren plantane, and the walnut sound;
The myrrhe, that her soul sin doth still deplore,
Alder the owner of all waterish ground.
FAI RFAX.
Slips of yew,
Shiver’d in the moon’s eclipse.
SHAKESPEARE’S MACBETH.
They would bind me here
Unto the body of a dismal yew. SHAKESPEARE’S TITUS ANDRONICUS.
He drew,
And almost join’d the horns of the tough yew. DRYDEN.
The distinguish’d yew is ever seen,
Unchang’d his branch, and permanent his green. PRIOR.
YOLK. n.s. [See YELK.] The yellow part of an egg.
Nature hath provided a large yolk in every egg, a great part whereof remaineth after the chicken is hatched; and, by a channel made on purpose, serves instead of milk to nourish the chick for a considerable time. RAY ON THE CREATION.
YOU’THY. adj. [from youth.] Young; youthful. A bad word.
The scribler had not genius to turn my age, as indeed I am an old maid, into raillery, for affecting a youthier turn than is consistent with my time of day. SPECTATOR.
YUCK. n.s. [jocken, Dutch.] Itch.
YUX. n.s. [yeox, Saxon.] The hiccough.